Hit Parade, the
by Roses of Sharon
Summary: Drabble series, derived from my killer Princeton Review PSAT vocabulary lists. Week 03-1234.
1. Week 01, 1&2&3

Disclaimer: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor Naruto

_Disclaimer_: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor _Naruto._

_Summary_: Drabble series, utilizing my killer PSAT Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists. Various pairings, centrics.

The Hit Parade

Week One

\parts 1&2&3/

**01. CANDID. **_**completely honest, straightforward. **_

Sasuke thinks this is the perfect trait. Isn't it? Say it as it is. But when he meets Sakura and Naruto in the middle of the forest, on his way back to Konoha, he doesn't say _I'm happy to see you_ or _What, did you expect me to abandon you?_ He manages something along the lines of, _Dobe. I knew you'd get yourself killed without me. _

**02. CONJECTURE. **_**inference; guesswork**_**.**

Sasuke does far too much of this, Sakura discovers somewhere between weeks two and three of their very tentative relationship. Most of it is right, fortunately; if she's out, it's not because she's leaving him, it's because she's with Ino. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to understand that her practically stripping in front of him does not mean it's hot, it means that she thinks he is.

**03. DIDACTIC. **_**instructive.**_

Kakashi swears _Icha Icha Paradise_ is instructive, helpful, and extremely conducive to a good relationship. Jiraiya swears that that entire _Icha Icha _series is based on real life – and that's he's researched it thoroughly. Sasuke just wants to know when the hell Sakura got so creative.

**04. EUPHEMISM. **_**a mild, indirect, or vague term substituting for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term.**_

"You're daughter left saving her teammates," Tsunade manages. "She was a brave kunoichi, courageous and strong and caring. We are sorry to see her pass from our ranks." Beside her, rows of black-clad shinobi stare at the ground, at the sky, at each other. And the civilian parents of one of their most promising genin try to dig past the pretty words, and read the truth: their only daughter is dead.

**06. EXTRAPOLATE. **_**to infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information.**_

Shizune thinks that this must be the worst job ever – not being Tsunade's, because she had begged and hoped and prayed for that, but being in charge of the hospital. Or rather, a group of incompetent medics. "No," she explained patiently, for what must have been the umpteenth times, "A obviously leads to B, therefore, if two grams of this sleeping drug is enough to kill, then you should…" No one raises their hand to answer, and she sighs and begins from the top. Yet again.

**07. INCOHERENT. **_**lacking cohesion or connection.**_

"Tell the Kazekage that Naruto is off is Mist," Tsunade slurs, and Shizune sighs and makes a note of it before she forgets – for Tsunade, drunk, is impossible. Her next words are to ask for more sake, but before she wanders (staggers) off to find some for herself, she tells Shizune to send Kakashi out on reconnaissance. _Akatsuki _is mentioned nowhere in the sentence, but Shizune adds that to her notes, anyways. After so long, she had become an expert at deciphering drunken commands.

**08. INSINUATE. **_**to introduce or communicate stealthily.**_

Sasuke has always been good at this – too good. Saying things without saying them, so that you never know what he's thinking or where you stand, in his eyes. You never really know. So Sakura will never tell anyone this, but she is vaguely, undeniably pleased when Sai opens his mouth and calls her ugly. Maybe she'll never be pleased with the things he says, she thinks. But at least she'll know.

**09. LUCID. **_**easily understood; clear.**_

Maybe it's a ninja thing. Not being understood, that is. Sakura's parents turn and stare at each other a moment after their little baby sixteen-year-old girl exits the room, and wonder exactly what she was mumbling about, what with space distortion and lines and lines of symbols and the oddest functions of chakra.

**10. RHETORIC. **_**the art of using language effectively and persuasively.**_

Sasuke has always been good at this – at least, everyone thinks so. Not so much persuasively, because that has something to do with the red whirring wheels of his eyes and the way his hand tends to stray to his kunai pouch, but effectively. If 'effectively' means much the same thing as 'bluntly' and 'curtly'.

**11. ACUMEN. **_**quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight.**_

Orochimaru was good at this, Tsunade remembers. He was the genius of the group, smart and fast and strong. And slightly skewed. She remembers the way he always wondered how things work, how he would stare at his kills, whenever he made them, for what seemed like such a long time, no matter how much blood dripped from his own body. She thinks now that she should have known. He was always different.

**12. ADROIT. **_**dexterous; deft.**_

People act as though Tenten was born with this particular skill, that it means nothing. (It certainly seems that way, that she was born holding a kunai in one hand and a sharpening stone in the other.) They, however, have not seen the work she has poured into this career. (They see only the goal, never the path that leads to the goal – it is the path that is important.) But that doesn't matter to her – all that matters is that Neji sees – and Neji sees everything – and Neji is proud of her. And that is all that matters.

**13. ASCERTAIN. **_**to find out, as through investigation or experimentation.**_

Hinata. Shino. Kiba. This is their work – reconnaissance. They are not Team InoShikaChou, for assassinations. They are not Team Gai – search and rescue. They are not Team Kakashi, who can do anything _but _reconnaissance. They are only themselves. Never the glory, always the work.

**14. ASTUTE. **_**shrewd; clever.**_

For always, Hanabi has known that she is who she is because she must be. She has never chosen; if she had been given a choice, she had never understood it. What is to choose, as a child, between the love of her father and being shunned by him? But now she sees what she chose, and she understands. She chose the hard life – forced to imprison her cousins, to defeat her sister. She can never love, never cherish, only protect. This was her choice, and she fights to defend it with all her power – from herself.

**15. CIRCUMSPECT. **_**careful; prudent; discreet.**_

This is Hinata, and this is why Tsunade summons her to her office one day. _Find_, she tells her. _Find everything you can, and tell me._ And Hinata obeys, not because she has to but because she chooses to. She chooses to be the spy, Konoha's spy, because she knows that she can do this well. When her father sends her out, she keeps her eyes and ears open not only for what benefits Hyuuga, but for what benefits Konoha. And there is only one thing she has never told Tsunade. _One day, when I was a little girl, on the banks of the Great River, a man saved me. This man was strong – stronger then Neji-nii-san, stronger than Itachi. And he saved my life. _

**16. DISSEMINATE. **_**to scatter widely; as in sowing seed.**_

This is what Itachi does with the souls of the Uchiha – tears them apart and rips them to pieces and grinds them under his heel. As a test, maybe. And maybe because he feels that he needs to. But this is what he does. (He does not know that he fails, for he is dead before the Uchiha are reborn.)

**17. ERUDITION.**_** deep, extensive learning.**_

Tsunade has always been in awe of Jiraiya, in that respect – the sheer amount of information that he is willing to ferret out and _remember._ She herself has always had to work so hard to remember the things that she needs to – from jutsu to reference materials to tradition. She actually reads the first of his _Icha Icha _books, only because she does not know better – how did someone who knew so _much _dedicate it to writing _porn_?

**18. HUSBANDRY. **_**the application of scientific principles to agriculture, especially to animal breeding.**_

The first time Hinata tries to use this as a conversation starter with her teammates, they stare at her with big, round eyes and wonder why anyone would want to interfere with letting animals choose their mates. (She tries to explain that that's not really what she's talking about, but Kiba is loud and Shino is quiet and it doesn't quite work.) Sometime in between years two and five of Team Eight, though, Kiba quiets down and Shino speaks up and she is allowed to explain that really, she was hoping to ask them what it meant, but it was fine – she had looked it up in the dictionary.

**19. PEDANTIC. **_**excessively concerned with book learning and formal rules.**_

It is the lack of this that makes them ninja – the inability to follow rules, the unwillingness to learn from textbooks. Not that they all are, but the shinobi in the field? They didn't get there because they followed rules. They got there because they were willing to break them, and good enough to get away with it. Just ask Kakashi.

**20. PERSPICACIOUS. **_**shrewd; clear-sighted.**_

Temari, who has always known which battles to lose. She will fight to defend her land to the death, but she has always deferred to her brother. She will hate and cherish and kill and protect, but she will also let others protect her. Temari is not arrogant – she is proud. And it is she who will survive.

**21. PRAGMATIC. **_**practical. **_

Iruka is practical, almost mind numbingly so. This is why he is a teacher – he can deal with the small problems without blowing a fuse, can be patient and demanding at one. This is why he accepts Naruto – because he does not sees the child, where others can see only the monster.

**22. PRECOCIOUS. **_**exhibiting unusually early intellectual aptitude or maturity.**_

This is what they call Uchiha Itachi for his first two months as a student at the Ninja Academy. Afterwards, he is 'genius.'

**23. PROSPECTUS. **_**formal proposal. **_

Tsunade signs a lot of these. (She reads about half stinking drunk. Which is how the lampposts of Konoha got painted bright green. Really, it's all about timing.)

**24. RUDIMENTARY. **_**basic; elementary; in the earliest stages of development. **_

This is, in part, what Sasuke sees when he looks at Karin. In a way, this is and is not why he chose her. He does not allow weak teammates – but when he looks at her, sometimes, it is not Karin he sees. It is Sakura. And that is why he allows her to be weak – because he knows that Sakura is no longer that way.

**25. ABTRUSE. **_**difficult to understand. **_

Sasuke. Except to Sakura. And Naruto. And Kakashi, who understands a little too well. Really, it's all about the team – and the multiple meanings of 'hn'. Team Seven has catalogued sixty-seven.

**26. CALLOUS. **_**emotionally hardened; unfeeling.**_

Neji tries, he tries very, very hard not to feel. And he is good at it – years of being rejected by his own family have taught him this, at least. But with Tenten lying in his lap, her life staining his shirt, he thinks that it is just too hard.

**27. CONVOLUTED. **_**intricate; complex. **_

Kakashi should never have been made Hokage, and not only for this reason – but this reason is the most fascinating, especially when Naruto (Hokage in training), Sakura (the Godaime's apprentice) and Sasuke (the head of the Uchiha) hear of a particularly fascinating incidence in which Kakashi pushes something through the council by sheer willpower – and because no one manages to understand what he's saying, and votes for him simply to shut him up.

**28. ENIGMA. **_**a puzzle, mystery, or riddle. **_

This is what shinobi is, and, even more, kunoichi. And this is what Haruno Sakura's civilian parents realize: They no longer understand their daughter. They do not understand the flawed smiles and the tired eyes, the calluses and scars – they do not understand their daughter, and this, in and of itself, hurts.

**29. INSCRUTABLE. **_**difficult to fathom or understand; impenetrable **_

Ino thought, once upon a time, that Shikamaru was far too easily read: like a book with open covers and thick pages. This is before she learns that books don't really show everything they have until you look – until you slit open the covers and find the notes shoved inside, until you shine the right amount of light and reveal the white-on-white writing. It is the same with Shika, she decides a long while into Team InoShikaChou – you never know what more he has.

**30. RETICENT. **_**inclined to keep silent; reserved.**_

More and more now, Kakashi can be found in his apartment, sharpening his weapons and reading his porn and preparing for his missions. (More and more now, especially after he is left alone again – the one fragment remaining of Team Seven. The Team that should have been.)

**31. STAID. **_**unemotional; serious. **_

There are happy killers out there; she has seen them – Naruto is a happy killer. Not happy in bloodshed and death, but happy in that he is able to kill and kill and kill and keep smiling, keep grinning, keep laughing. There are sad killers out there; she has met them – they kill and kill and kill and _die inside. _She herself is neither: to be kunoichi – to kill – it is duty. That is all.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

So this is a bit of a frightening experiment for me, because I don't really know what age you all are. And if this is way, way, way below your level(s). It really started out as a way for me to study, because I'm taking the PSAT in a few months, but I've decided to post it – I hope no one is disappointed in me?


	2. Week 01, 4&5&6

Disclaimer: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor Naruto

_Disclaimer_: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor _Naruto._

_Summary_: Drabble series, utilizing my killer PSAT Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists. Various pairings, centrics.

The Hit Parade

Week One

\parts 4&5&6/

**01. ARCANE. **_**known or understood by only a few **_

Once upon a time, when the world was simpler, Hinata was simpler. Not understandable, certainly, but something that could be shunted into the corner of Hanabi's mind as nothing more than a curiosity in a house of uniformity. Now, with this brand on her forehead, things are different. _Hinata _is different, especially when she, as Head, declares an end to the sealing of the Branch House. Hanabi will never understand.

**02. ASSIMILATE. **_**to absorb or become absorbed; to make or become similar**_**.**

This is what Orochimaru demands of Sasuke in Sound. Forget Konoha. This is your home now. And so Sasuke tried, because this is just another step to power. (In his mind, he still hears gay laughter and boisterous smiles and whispered loyalty.) Sasuke never becomes a member of Sound. But he learns to pretend – so well that he, himself, hardly knows the difference.

**03. AUTONOMY. **_**independence; self-determination.**_

"Samurai," Tsunade spits out, "are soldiers. They bind themselves to a leader they may never see, lash themselves to a cause they do not understand, and obey blindly – and they hold themselves above the _common people _for that. They have no _self._" Looking out at the shinobi – _her _shinobi – assembled before, she adds, "You do not fight for me. You fight for what you have. When Konoha calls you, you can, if you can bear it, turn away from the call. And you know what we fight for. We? We are shinobi."

**04. COSMPOLITAN. **_**widely sophisticated.**_

Some days, Ino thinks of this as an extra benefit of being shinobi. If she were a civilian, well, she would never, ever meet anyone – see anything! She wouldn't know how. Being kunoichi had given her everything – and it had taken everything away.

**06. DERIVATIVE. **_**something that comes from another source.**_

The Uchiha, some very officially nonexistent records show, descended from the Hyuuga. Uchiha privately think this makes them better. Hyuuga privately think they are inferior. And neither are willing to admit to it at all.

**07. ENTOURAGE. **_**a group of attendants or associates; a retinue.**_

Gaara has one, to some effect. Temari or Kankurou, sometimes both, and a few rather obscure Sand shinobi. A medic or two. Tsunade has an entourage as well. Sakura, and, with her, Naruto and Sasuke and occasionally Kakashi. Shizune and Tonton. One of the Hyuugas – recently, Neji or Hinata or Hanabi. A Council member or two. An Aburame, an Inuzuka, and ShikaInoChou, the former or the latter. All in all, when they finally go to war, Tsunade looks a hell of a lot more impressive. Until the sand starts moving under the enemy's feet. And then she crosses her arms and her face forms an expression that, in a lesser woman, would have been called a pout.

**08. ESOTERIC. **_**intended for or understood by only a small group.**_

A few days after Naruto becomes Hokage, Hinata makes an appointment with him, enters his Tower, and begins asking him questions. They are, he thinks, the most random and completely unrelated questions that anyone could ever ask, ranging in topic from wild forest fires to dabbling in black magic, with a spattering of politics in between. He answers most of them in a bewildered tone, and she smiles and leaves. Later, she apologizes and asks him out for ramen. She never quite explains what she was doing in his room – and she never mentions why her father had her do it.

**09. ****GAFFE. **_**a clumsy social error; a faux pas.**_

The moment after Naruto orders ramen at the state function of the century – while around him, ambassadors and Kages are delicately chewing specialties with unpronounceable names – there is a moment of silence, during which the aforementioned ambassadors and Kages stare (politely), choke (quietly), and then burst into laughter.

**10. IDIOSYNCRASY. **_**characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.**_

Is your true life calling serving your village as shinobi? If you answer yes to two or more of the following questions, and are under the age of five, perhaps you should consider signing up at your local Ninja Academy! One, do you feel naked without a weapon? Two, do you find yourself avoiding open spaces with large windows? Three, are you constantly being called paranoid?

**11. INSULAR. **_**isolated; narrow or provincial. **_

There is, of course, a reason it's called a _Hidden _Village, even though anyone who wanted could probably find it simply by asking directions. The point is that no one would really bother to find it, because no one really wants to tramp through miles and miles and trap-laden forest. Or come any of the three paths, only to be set upon by shinobi whose faces you could play matching games with using the bingo book. So really. Konoha is rather… _lonely._

**12. ORTHODOX. **_**adhering to the traditional and established, especially in religion.**_

Shinobi, as a whole, tend not to believe in religion. Perhaps it's because they are all anarchists, and resent thinking that they are ruled by fear of a higher power. Perhaps they are loath to believe in what they cannot see. And maybe it just sucks to know that your job is sending you to hell.

**13. POTENTATE. **_**one who has the power and position to rule over others; monarch.**_

One would think that being Hokage would imply unlimited power. But really, he thought, glaring out at the Council, who would oppose him opening a ramen bar in the Hokage Tower?

**14. CASTIGATE. **_**to scold, rebuke, or harshly criticize.**_

Naruto knows that Sakura doesn't mean it when she screams at him. Naruto even knows _Sasuke _doesn't mean it when he glares at him. Sasuke just wishes that Sakura knew him half as well.

**15. CENSURE. **_**to issue official blame.**_

The official story is that they had a few technical difficulties with the camera. It escapes just about everyone's notice that, after the brief moments when the screen goes black, the shinobi in front of the Council are wearing very satisfied smiles. And the rest of the hearing goes rather quickly. (Anko, sitting at home in front of her television, nearly dies of laughter and congratulates Kakashi the minute he leaves the building.)

**16. DENOUNCE. **_**to condemn openly.**_

"You bitch," she seethes, and Naruto's eyes, fading toward red, snap back into their normal blue as he smiles and leans back into his chair. Looking back at him, Sasuke slowly settles into his chair. "Just watch," Naruto says confidently. "Sakura's never gonna let that little whore insult her Tsunade-shishou. I'll give you two to one odds that Sakura beats her into the ground. In two minutes." Sasuke looked at the girl, and then back at Sakura. "I give her three minutes." (It takes Sakura one and a half.)

**17. RECLUSIVE.**_** seeking or preferring seclusion or isolation.**_

"Okaa-san?" The voice came floating in through the door, and Sakura looked up as her daughter came in. "Anata-chan," she greeted, and smiled at the girl beside her. "Is this a new friend?" Anata scoffed, "We have a project to work on, kaa-san. She's just a classmate from school." "Damn," Sakura cursed under her breath, and turned back to chopping the celery, completely scaring the poor classmate. Sasuke walked into the room, watching the two girls. "And I thought that Anata might finally have brought a friend home." Sakura snorted, "It's not my fault she seems to have picked up on your genes. Just wait until genin teams."

**18. RELINQUISH. **_**to retire from; give up or abandon.**_

Shinobi don't retire. They hang up their masks and put away their poisons, and they tuck their weapons deep into corners and take their names off the rosters, but they never stop being shinobi.

**19. RENOUNCE. **_**to give up (a title, for example), especially by formal announcement.**_

The day after she drops the age jutsu in the middle of the street, Tsunade is no longer Hokage. She announces this in three sentences of formalities and two of thanks, and appoints Naruto as her successor. He is hardly unhappy with the choice; the Council, however, is furious.

**20. VITUPERATIVE. **_**marked by harshly abusive condemnation.**_

There is something stunningly, strangely hilarious in watching masked and armored men act like scolded children as they walk out of her office.

**21. CIRCUMSCRIBE. **_**to draw a circle around; to restrict. **_

The Kyuubi is trapped inside a cage drawn in ink and circular forms. (The first time Sakura sees the seal, she thinks only that it is beautiful. Sasuke thinks it is frightening. Kakashi thinks it is sad.)

**22. CONTIGUOUS. **_**sharing an edge or boundary; touching .**_

Team Seven, once, was only four members. Just four individuals: a prodigy set on his revenge, a delicate girl with perfect chakra control and nothing else, a boy with a world of hatred to overcome and a stunning goal, and a teacher who led best by absenteeism. It is an eternity, buckets of blood, and gallons of tears later that they become one; one contiguous whole.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

I just thought of something else! Or, rather, that new and totally awesome Reader Traffic thing informed me: apparently, I have readers who aren't from the United States? (That's totally mind-boggling, by the way…) And I was wondering, do those members of various other countries also have the PSAT? Yeah.

So, um, review? Please? (Oh, and I'm sorry this one is so much shorter than the other… I'll try to get Week Two out as soon as possible, yes?)


	3. Week 02, 1&2&3

Disclaimer: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor Naruto

_Disclaimer_: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor _Naruto._

_Summary_: Drabble series, utilizing my killer PSAT Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists. Various pairings, centrics.

The Hit Parade

Week Two

\parts 1&2&3/

**01. CONCILIATORY. **_**appeasing; soothing; showing willingness to reconcile. **_

Sasuke doesn't really know how to sooth, doesn't know how to let go of his own pride and pain enough to see anyone else's, much less help them with it. But maybe, Sakura thinks, as he takes her hand and pulls her in his wake, maybe he's trying.

**02. CREDIBLE. **_**capable of being believed; plausible**_**.**

Everything that Sasuke does, after his return, seems, if not completely innocent, then practical – for a shinobi, particularly one formerly of Sound, anyways. He converses with Team Kakashi behind locked doors and visits the Hokage Tower. He trains – unarmed – and sharpens the weapons he is not allowed to use. So when Naruto becomes Hokage, and Sasuke is the one behind it, no one is really surprised. Anything too good to be true… probably isn't.

**03. EXONERATE. **_**to free from blame.**_

Naruto, in the eyes of the people, will never be exonerated from the blame of being born on the wrong day. The day when the Yondaime Hokage decided to do what had to be done, and captured a Kyuubi and placed it within a baby boy. Naruto will always be blamed for this – for his birthdate, for his father, for the destruction of his village. And it will never be his fault.

**04. INCONTROVERTIBLE. **_**indisputable; not open to question.**_

Death is The End, the one boundary no one has every broken, that no one can ever break. As great as they are, as powerful and strong and skilled as they are, everyone is equal in front of Death. And Death always wins.

**06. INDICT. **_**to officially charge with wrongdoing or a crime.**_

Sasuke is, in his absence, officially charged with treason. And when he returns, no matter what he has done for the Village (_killed Orochimaru, killed Itachi_), no matter what he means for Konoha (_brother lover son_), no matter what his worth (_acres of Uchiha land, banks of Uchiha money, Sharingan_), he will die.

**07. LITIGIOUS. **_**prone to engage in lawsuits.**_

It is rather pointless to be a lawyer in a Village of shinobi. They tend to bypass court proceedings altogether, except in the most volatile of cases. In fact, they tend not to even notify the officials and duel it out on the practice courts or half-kill each other while training. Or just go missing-nin. But that's a bit… extreme.

**08. PARTISAN. **_**devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause.**_

It is Naruto who brought – brings – them all together. Because before they were just teams, just individuals, but Naruto makes them strong. And they will do anything to repay that debt to him – blackmail and sabotage in the name of his campaign to become Hokage is, really, just a small step.

**09. PARITY. **_**equality, as in amount, status, or value (antonym: disparity).**_

There is no such thing as equality, and Naruto mourns the loss of it. If it had ever existed, he thinks, then maybe things would have been different. Maybe it all would have been different - maybe he could have had a family, and a home. Maybe Sasuke wouldn't have been an orphan. And maybe Sakura wouldn't have been left behind. But there is no such thing as equality, and they can, at least, recognize that. _Life isn't fair._

**10. RECTITUDE. **_**moral uprightness; righteousness.**_

Rectitude has little place in the life of shinobi – after all, what right do murders have to judge the crimes of other murderers? Still, to survive, one has to believe in it. Believe in _right _and _wrong_, and believe that you are on the _right side._

**11. REMISS. **_**lax in attending to duty; negligent.**_

Tsunade takes her job as Hokage seriously, impossibly seriously. She would die for Konohagakure, and, even now, she lives for it. But to see her drinking… you wouldn't think so.

**12. REPUDIATE. **_**to reject the validity or authority of.**_

There is one neighborhood, one section of the city, that rejects Naruto as Hokage, and secedes from Konohagakure in protest. This is a bad idea, collectively, seeing as how it is _not _a neighborhood full of ninja. It is, instead, a neighborhood of balding old politicians and young firebrands. They are conquered in a single speech – five minutes long – and three hours of work.

**13. SANCTIMONIOUS. **_**feigning piety or righteousness.**_

Karin likes to act like a little girl, though only in front of Sasuke. Innocent and naïve and sweet and beautiful. Her falseness only serves to remind him of someone else, someone he cannot ever have and wishes he could hold, right now, right here. And he wants to tell them, had he been any other boy, they would have been enough – and he would not be here, sitting here with this model that is so like Sakura. And who isn't. Because Karin may act good, but Sakura _is_ good.

**14. SCRUPULOUS. **_**principled, having a strong sense of right and wrong; conscientious and exacting.**_

It takes a lot to be scrupulous – it takes actually having something. When you have everything you could ever want, then you find it easy to be scrupulous. When you have absolutely nothing, then it is far more difficult. Everything you had and everything you may someday have depends on your choice – to do what is right and utterly unprofitable, or to do what is wrong, and open doors for yourself that may lead to the best of places.

**15. SOLICITOUS. **_**concerned.**_

Sakura has always needed to fix – always needed _someone _to fix, ever since she was a child with broken toys and torn dolls, always needed to care for something, always needed to love something and show her love for it. She has always needed to heal. And so you are grateful to Uchiha Sasuke, for breaking.

**16. SOPHISTRY. **_**plausible but misleading or fallacious argument.**_

"That way," she tells them, and they do not think to disbelieve her – because she hates him now, would do anything to help them capture the Uchiha and put him to trial, make him pay for what he did to the brother of her heart. And after they are gone, she turns to the corner and undoes the genjutsu, and she smiles at him, angrily. Sadly. In the end, she has always been on his side.

**17. SUBSTANTIATE.**_** to support with proof or evidence; verify.**_

There is proof of Danzo's operations, acres and acres of it hidden underground and in the minds of his operatives. Sai does not mean to conceal it, but that means nothing to questioners without the right questions.

**18. VERACITY. **_**adherence to the truth; truthfulness.**_

Kakashi always tells the truth. Never the whole truth, never only the truth, but Kakashi always tells the truth. He makes it a habit, like being late, because he likes truthfulness. It is _good._ And it is _right._ But now, kneeling here, he manages to lie. _No_, he says. _No, I don't know where she is. No, I don't know where she's hiding. _

**19. VINDICATE. **_**to free form blame.**_

"It's not your fault," Rin tells him, some days. These days are fewer and farther between, now; he scarcely listens to her, and sometimes he pretends he does, but she does not like to be lied to. Still, _It's not your fault_, she'll say. Because on some level, he needs her to say it. Needs to hear it. _It wasn't your fault. _

**20. CAJOLE. **_**to urge with repeated appeals, teasing, or flattery.**_

Sakura will never need to do this to get her Sasuke-kun to go with her on team outings – or on shinobi outing. That she does it is simply an added bonus for him.

**21. CHICANERY. **_**trickery. **_

Naruto has always been one for this – graffiti over the Hokage monument, Kakashi's book covered in paint – but it is not until he becomes Hokage that it becomes a skill.

**22. OBSEQUIOUS. **_**fawning and servile.**_

Gaara will always have to deal with this, because he, unlike Tsunade, is not unwilling to kill anyone in his way. Council members, uncooperative politicians and businessmen… And so Gaara will always have to deal with people who obey him out of fear, who will not kiss the ground he walks on but who will do anything he wants, however he wants it - because they find their lives more important than their honor.

**23. SYCOPHANT. **_**insincere, obsequious flatterer. **_

Tsunade meets many of these. Many, many, many of them. They come in many guises: a merchant, a captured spy, a former lover determined to milk something out of her newfound status. Sometime after she punches in the wall beside the first one with her bare fist, they find someone else to go to.

**24. ALTRUISM. **_**unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness. **_

It is hard to number the nights when Sasuke is forced to (_chooses to, makes himself_) pick Sakura up at the hospital, drained of chakra. He has always admired her for being able to give so freely of herself; now, he would almost wish her selfish if she would take care of herself.

**25. EMINENT. **_**distinguished; prominent. **_

Sasuke's face might as well be plastered over billboards and internet advertisements, Sakura thinks, because the minute they step out of the house together – wearing yesterday's rumpled clothing rather conspicuously – there are weeping fangirls on the streets, acting as though the world has come to a rather inconclusive end. At least it saves them the trouble of dealing with fighting them off.

**26. EMPATHETIC. **_**identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives.**_

It is not just the Byakugan that makes Hinata so able to understand the emotion behind the actions. It is her heart, sweet (_gentlekindloving_) and beautiful (_prettydeliciousgorgeous_) and caring.

**27. EXTOL. **_**to praise highly. **_

In war, you cannot be the good guy. You just have to try to be the better man, and make sure you are on the right side. You are the better man, and you are on the right side. This is what Jiraiya tells Naruto, on one of the rare occasions when he is sober and solemn. He follows it up by hitting on a lesbian.

**28. LAUDATORY. **_**full of praise. **_

The ambassador returns to his home full of praise for Konoha – her tall walls and strong shinobi and selfless civilians, the training fields full of excellent genin, the promptness of the chuunin messengers. In his wake, Konohagakure breathes a sigh of relief and lets down the genjutsu.

**29. MAGNANIMOUS. **_**courageously or generously noble in mind and heart. **_

Naruto is, and it is beautiful. He would be King, in another world, Sakura thinks wistfully. He could be King, and rule over the entire Land, and everyone would love him, because he would love them and care for them. He would be King, and Hinata, perhaps, would be his Queen, and maybe Sasuke would be the Knight, and she… maybe she could have been the Healer, or his Lady. And then she shakes her head and wakes herself up and remembers the _here _and _now_, where there is no King, and no Land, and she must attend his funeral. Tomorrow.

**30. PHILANTHROPIC. **_**humanitarian; benevolent; relating to monetary generosity.**_

Sasuke is, unbelievably. There is something to be pleased about in the phrasing of Uchiha wills: every penny, ever square foot owned by an Uchiha goes to Sasuke. Who donates most of it to various charities, mostly out of spite.

**31. RECIPROCATE. **_**to mutually take or give; to respond in kind. **_

Sasuke can't. Naruto and Sakura can give and give and give until they have nothing left and still give, but he can only take.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

Thanks so much to everyone for the reviews! I'm so sorry for any confusion that might have sprouted from, um, 1-15 or 2-8 or any of the others. If anyone needs anything else clarified, I'd be happy to do so; just drop me a review and I'll be happy to reply.


	4. Week 02, 4&5

Disclaimer: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor Naruto

_Disclaimer_: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor _Naruto._

_Summary_: Drabble series, utilizing my killer PSAT Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists. Various pairings, centrics.

The Hit Parade

Week One

\parts 4&5/

**01. DEFUNCT. **_**no longer existing or functioning.**_

Orochimaru may have been terrible, but he had taken a dying Village and made it, if not whole, then strong. And if not strong, then vicious. But in his absence, it decays once more.

**02. ERADICATE. **_**to get rid of as if by tearing it up by the roots; abolish.**_

Sasuke tries, he really does. But he will never truly destroy his feelings for his team. Not Team Hebi, because he is older and more experienced in hatred by the time he reaches them, but Team Seven - because when he first loves them, he is young and impressionable, and he does not know the true meaning of hate. Now, he _can _not.

**03. EXPURGATE. **_**to remove objectionable content before publication or release.**_

It was the Hokage's job before Tsunade pushed it onto someone else. (Because somewhere deep within Tsunade, there is still a girl who believes in _freedom of the press_.) Anko enjoys this job, because the little girl who might have believed in any _freedom _at all died to Orochimaru.

**04. EXTIRPATE. **_**to destroy.**_

Naruto is gone, and an entire nation mourns the loss of hope. His death, they think, symbolizes the destruction of Konoha. What is foretold comes true a month later, and no one can ever know what it would have been like had he not died and taken the hopes and dreams of a generation with him.

**06. QUELL. **_**to put down forcibly; suppress.**_

Uzumaki Minato – for he is _Uzumaki _by then, for Kushina – attacks the Kyuubi and forces it into a body far too small for it, a soul far too young. He thinks it is worth it, because anything to save Konohagakure is worth it, by then. To him.

**07. RAZE. **_**to level to the ground; demolish.**_

When Sasuke comes back and is cleared of all guilt – there is something great, he thinks, in being able to come in with the knowledge that he had single-handedly destroyed two of Konoha's greatest threats – he goes to the Uchiha District, and he burns it to the ground. Sasuke doesn't want to see it anymore; and he has always had a finely tuned sense of irony. And there is definitely something ironic in burning the District.

**08. SQUELCH. **_**to crush as if by trampling; squash.**_

When Naruto is made Hokage, he begins drawing plans to build a ramen bar in his office. Sakura crushes his dreams rather brutally, with an hour-long discussion (_rantrantrant_) on exactly how that would be viewed by his allies, subordinates, and, especially, her. As in, _I'm never stepping foot in this office again and you will have to deal with being Hokage without my help_. He sees the truth very clearly.

**09. SUPPLANT. **_**to usurp the place of, especially through intrigue or underhanded tactics.**_

There is no such thing as 'promotion' in T&I, probably because they're all such head jobs and can read meaning into anything. Instead, Ino learns, you do your job spectacularly – or as well as you can – and wait (and plot) for the day when you allow yourself to move up. And take someone else's place. Preferably when they're on vacation.

**10. STYMIE. **_**to thwart or stump.**_

There is always something out there, something difficult, some boundary that you cannot cross. It is not Death, but it is just as potent, and just as strong. Some people never reach that wall. Shinobi spend their lives fighting against it – and losing.

**11. ABASE. **_**to lower in rank, prestige, or esteem. **_

People will always hate Naruto, because Naruto is who he is (_kyuubicontainerYondaime'slegacy_). So people will always hate him, and people will always want to destroy him, and people will always fail. Because of what Naruto has become (_friendloversonteammate_).

**12. DERIDE. **_**to mock contemptuously.**_

After Orochimaru leaves, it is Anko who takes the blame. Anko, by then, is a little girl who is no longer young, with eyes that have looked on too much and survived, never to tell of it. And it is Anko who suffers the glares of the people, Anko who must deal with their hatred and derision and their mocking. And it is Anko who survives – but at a cost. Always a cost. Nothing ever comes free.

**13. DEROGATORY. **_**insulting or intended to insult.**_

Sakura has always been called weak, has always known that she is weak. Sasuke-kun says so, she thinks, and he left her. And Naruto would never, ever say so – but he thought it, and that's why he always protected her. But he, too, is gone. So Sakura can be called weak, and has been called weak, but from now on… from now on, she swears on the blood on her hands, she no longer will be.

**14. DISPARAGE. **_**to speak of negatively; to belittle.**_

Tsunade was once bothered by her naysayers, those people who swore she would fail, simply because she was a woman, and had failed before. Now, she accepts it as part of the job. As long as they are there, in the background, she knows she is doing her job.

**15. EFFRONTERY. **_**brazen boldness; presumptuousness.**_

Gaara kills the first man who treats him as though he should listen to the Council's every wish as an example. Temari nearly kills him for the bloodstains he leaves on the brand new carpet; if it had happened a few years later, she might have. (At the time, though, he is still the Shukaku Jinchuuriki, more than he is her brother.)

**16. IGNONIMY. **_**great personal dishonor or humiliation; disgraceful conduct.**_

No one blames him, but he will always be sorry for what he didn't do. He did not save her. (At the time, he is hundreds of miles and moments and moments away, and he wishes that he had looked back at her and _seen_.)

**17. IMPUGN.**_** to attack as false or questionable.**_

There will always be those who attack Kakashi, not with weapons, but with words. There will always be those who distrust the Copy-Nin, because they distrusted his father, and because he is who he is, with the record that he has. And every one of his superiors knows of his penchant for willful misunderstandings, and doing what he feels he has to. No matter what. But no one, ever, can truly believe that the Copy-Nin is anything but completely loyal to Konoha.

**18. MAR. **_**to damage, especially in a disfiguring way.**_

When Sasuke returns, it is with a long scar down his cheek and a new brokenness in his eyes. He isn't perfect, anymore; he isn't the beautiful boy that had girls following him down the streets. And Sakura loves him for it, just for that.

**19. PEJORATIVE. **_**disparaging, belittling, insulting.**_

It's really a form of affection. And when Sasuke insults Sakura? He really means _I love you_, _Don't leave me_, and _I don't think I could live without you, don't make me try_.

**20. VEX. **_**to annoy or bother; to perplex.**_

Naruto exits Tsunade's office through the window, always. He enters through the door, without knocking, without appointment. And he gleefully helps Sakura hide the sake. (And he dreams big, big, big dreams about a face on the monument and a room in the Tower. So Tsunade should understand him, because he is so like her brother. But she can't. Because where her brother failed, she swears Naruto will succeed.)

**21. VINDICTIVE. **_**disposed to seek revenge; revengeful; spiteful. **_

Next to this word in the dictionary is a picture of Sasuke, in the throes of the curse seal. Because Sasuke may be vengeful, and Sasuke may be prepared to throw everything away for his vengeance, but he has never been able to be truly spiteful. Because hating something, truly hating something, requires hating everything and everyone else. And Sasuke cannot.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

I'm still so pumped over that 4x100 free. I mean, really. And I'm experiencing a brief dislike for France/the French. But that'll fade.

And I have a _small _dilemma. I mean, I know I want United States to have the top medal count. And China (even if it's pissing me off) should have second, because of their little machine. But what about Taiwan? Because Taiwan is just that pwnsome, and we deserve something. So I decided that I want Taiwan to sweep TaeKwanDo, and win at least two other medals. Yeah. (Not gonna happen, any of it.)


	5. Week 03, 1&2&3&4

Disclaimer: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor Naruto

_Disclaimer_: I own neither the Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists and definitions nor _Naruto._

_Summary_: Drabble series, utilizing my killer PSAT Princeton Review Hit Parade vocabulary lists. Various pairings, centrics.

The Hit Parade

Week Three

\parts 1&2&3&4/

**01. BOMBASTIC. **_**given to pompous speech or writing. **_

Sakura is very nearly despondent when Maito Gai is placed in the hospital following an A-ranked mission involving several exploding kunai, a space distortion genjutsu, and a crater approximately seven meters wide. The reason lies in his mission report: a thirteen-page monstrosity filled with capitalizations and italicizations, declarations of the power of youth, and promises to train harder for his next mission, which would, of course, involve just as many kunai, genjutsu, and explosions. (After highlighting the actual mission details, Sakura notes that it covers approximately a page.)

**02. EBULLIENCE. **_**intense enthusiasm**_**.**

Lee pursues everything in life intensely, and this is how he manages to become jounin despite his inability to mold chakra. (He takes a student, after Gai-sensei dies, a student just as unable to mold chakra, with just as much determination. This student, fortunately, also has enough presence of self to refuse the jumpsuit that Lee-sensei offers him.)

**03. EXORBITANT. **_**exceeding all bounds, as of custom or fairness.**_

When Sasuke returns, the Council's demands of him are crippling, and utterly, utterly unfair. _And Sakura screams and Naruto rants and Kakashi is furious_, but it means nothing. _Limited chakra use, bound to Konoha and genin-level missions, and no sex (__**no reviving your clan**__)_ they tell him, and Sakura despairs, because this might be The End, this might be the part where he says no and is executed. But he looks Tsunade straight in the eyes and nods, once.

**04. EXUBERANT. **_**full of unrestrained enthusiasm or joy.**_

When they were younger, Sakura was always happy. Always, always happy – before she went to the Ninja Academy and learned about her _defected forehead_, before she joined her team and learned about her _weakness_, before Sasuke left and she was faced with her _uselessness_. But before all that, when she was young, Sakura was happy. And Sakura _loved. _

**06. EMBELLISH. **_**to ornament or decorate; to exaggerate.**_

An author's job is to embellish the truth – to take a line and add a little flair, a little sparkle. To leave some edges ragged, to make it seem the truth, and to make some other edges smooth, to make it beautiful. An author's job is to take a truth and make it a lie, a beautiful lie, a lie that everyone wants to hear and no one wants to look behind. That is why a kunoichi is, in essence, an author.

**07. FLAGRANT. **_**extremely or deliberately shocking or noticeable.**_

Naruto, as a child, was never given anything in bright colors: browns and grays and dim shades of green and blue, used and worn and fading, because that was what he was expected to do. Fade. So when he is given his own money for the _very first time ever_, he buys the most ostentatiously colored jacket he can. It is orange. _And still, people never see him_.

**08. GRATUITIOUS. **_**given freely; unearned; unnecessary.**_

Sakura never needed to give Sasuke her love, because Sasuke never earned it. And Sasuke never wanted it. (_And Sasuke always needed it_.) But she never should have given it to him, because he had never earned it. She gives it to him anyways.

**09. LAVISH. **_**extravagant.**_

Ino's wedding has been the talk of the town since the planning began months ago, and she is certain that it will be for at least the next three years. There are custom made dresses and vast amounts of delicacies shipped in from around the world, and dancing and live music and there will be speeches and laughter and drunken toasts. At least, this is what she believes. _On the day of her wedding, she gets a mission; search and rescue: get Shikamaru back. _And she takes off her wedding gown and puts on her kunai pouch and leaves. After all, what kind of marriage is it without a groom?

**10. LUGUBRIOUS. **_**mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.**_

Naruto can never just be sad, mostly because he takes so much time being happy. But when he is said, it is not just _sadness_, it is _destruction_. It is sadness with the force of everything he has behind it, because it is as though he is putting on a show. He is putting on a show, because he cannot let anyone see the _real pain_ behind the _fake_, and because people count on him, now. They count on him to be happy and cheery and good, because he is Naruto.

**11. OPULENT. **_**displaying great wealth.**_

Hyuuga House is opulent, in their own way, because they have chests and bank accounts of gold and silver and precious stones; and because they have reams of paper detailing the dark secrets of the other clans, of the Council members, of the former Hokages. And Hinata hates this house, in a way, because it is all about people showing exactly what they have and what they can do with it – it is a game, and one she never wanted to learn to play.

**12. ORNATE. **_**elaborately decorated.**_

The hilt of Sasuke's favorite kunai – the one he never uses and which rests under his pillow when he sleeps – is patterned with cherry blossoms.

**13. PENCHANT. **_**a strong inclination or liking.**_

Tenten has always liked sharp objects, maybe more than she should. Back at the orphanage, she would sneak into the kitchen and help the cook slice his vegetables – she would slice them fine, and cube them perfectly. Later, she uses this technique on her enemies.

**14. REDUNDANT. **_**needlessly repetitive.**_

Life is a story, and the redundant character always dies – Boromir in _Lord of the Rings_, for instance. The redundant character always dies. So Sakura cannot let herself get close to Sai, because she knows he is doomed.

**15. UBIQUITOUS. **_**being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent.**_

Sasuke sees Sakura everywhere, in Sound. Every swing of red hair somehow turns pink in his peripheral vision, every pair of green eyes flash teal. The scent of cherry blossoms makes him think of her, walking just a few steps behind him, the screeching of his fangirls – ever present, even here in Sound – make him think of turning around to look for her in their midst. She is always here, always with him – so when he returns to Konoha to find her name on the Memorial Stone, he can hardly believe it.

**16. VICARIOUS. **_**felt or undergone as if one were taking part in the experience or feelings of another.**_

Hinata has always lived through everyone else – learned through their disappointments and failures, experienced their triumphs and successes. Eventually, though, there comes a time when that is not enough – when one has to become one's own person, and live one's own life. She thinks she has reached it.

**17. VIGNETTE.**_** a short scene or story.**_

The first thing that Jiraiya ever writes is three paragraphs long, three hundred and fifty-six words. It is beautiful, Tsunade thinks, when she reads it – it is sweet and charming and gorgeous and _real_, a bright spot of sunlight in the dark world that they live in. Like being drunk, she tells him, without the hangover. He says he wrote it about her.

**18. AMALGAM. **_**a combination of diverse elements; a mixture.**_

No shinobi can be only one thing, because no opponent is only one thing. Because if you are only one thing, you fall and fail and die, because you are not enough. But shinobi are not only one thing, because they are many, and different – they are pieces of a puzzle, an odd puzzle, with no end and no beginning and no picture, only pieces upon pieces fitting together and together and together, larger and (_hopefully_) stronger than the rest.

**19. INUNDATE. **_**to overwhelm as if with a flood; to swamp.**_

And when Sasuke comes back, the way Sakura always dreamed it, broken and bloody, his arm over Naruto's shoulder, she does _not _do what she has always dreamed – which is to beat him black and blue, heal him, do it again, and scream at him all the while. Instead, she kisses him. She thinks that it might hurt her, but she can tell it is worth it for the shock on his face.

**20. MULTIFARIOUS. **_**diverse; various.**_

Because there are a million different sides to them, a million and five hundred sixty-two thousand three hundred-fifty six. And no side is the same, and yet they are, and maybe that's why they're still alive.

**21. MULTIPLICITY. **_**state of being various or manifold; a great number. **_

The Hidden Villages are not known for armies, because armies are faceless, mindless masses of bodies. Armies are like organized mobs, in a way, because in an army you are responsible for nothing – you only obey, you only do what you are told to do. But they are not shinobi because they are willing to settle for being mindless and faceless – they are shinobi because they cannot be.

**22. ALLEVIATE. **_**to ease a pain or burden.**_

Time, they say, can heal all wounds, ease all hurts. But Sakura thinks this is untrue, because what has Time given to Sasuke? Bitterness and a broken dream and a goal he never wanted.

**23. AMELIORATE. **_**to make something better; improve. **_

Somehow, with Sakura beside him now, defeat doesn't hurt so much. (Or maybe it hurts all the more, because _he wasn't able to protect her_. But _she is able to protect herself_.)

**24. BENEFICIAL. **_**producing or promoting a favorable result; helpful. **_

Tea is the remedy to anything – that is the rule the Hyuuga go by, and Hinata has three cups of tea a day: one in the morning, with breakfast; one after lunch, as she does her paperwork, and one in the evening, before training. (Some days, like the days when Naruto is in the hospital or Hanabi is on a mission, she takes twice that.)

**25. CURATIVE. **_**able to heal or cure. **_

Chakra. It's another function is to kill.

**26. PALLIATIVE. **_**relieving or soothing the symptoms of a disease or disorder without effecting a cure. **_

Because the painkillers running through her system might just get her home, and they might not. But she knows that she will never make it home without them, and she has a message to bring – the most important message she has ever carried, and it _must _get home. So even though she knows she's signing her own death warrant, a drop of ink with each jarring jump, she must make it home.

**27. THERAPEUTIC. **_**having or exhibiting healing powers. **_

She wishes she could. She wishes that her fingers could do anything but kill, anything but hurt and maim and destroy. But the chakra that comes through those delicate fingers comes with the force of tidal waves and tsunamis and roaring forest fires, and can do nothing but harm.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, hahaha this makes me feel much good. Yeah.

But you know what really sucks?

I haven't read _Breaking Dawn _yet. Or _City of Ashes_.

So I'm like…

Life is crap.

But I updated anyways.

So you should all _love me_.

And review.

_Yes_.


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